Setting a standard for building control

The protectionist attitudes of manufacturers have hampered the development of intelligent buildings. Now a consensus is emerging that benefits both suppliers and customers. Among the competing systems, a clear winner is emerging. According to Echelon, which developed the protocol, LonWorks now accounts for 67% of the worldwide market for intelligent commercial buildings. More and more manufacturers and customers are investing in this technology, which is designed to be truly open and interoperable and is winning global acceptance. The philosophy underlying LonWorks is intelligent distributed control. Every node on the network has its own address and contains embedded intelligence to control the operation of attached sensors or actuators and implement the communications protocol.